Auschwitz Research

By: Bryanna Sniatecki

Auschwitz Research

By: Bryanna Sniatecki

Auschwitz 1

Auschwitz 1 functioned mainly as a concentration camp and created inhuman conditions for the prisoners. At one point it also served as a camp for mass killings. Roughly 16 thousand prisoners inhabited Auschwitz 1, and 10 thousand of them were Jews. The daily life of the prisoners was not good, water was located outside as were the bathrooms. They were crammed into barracks and forced to sleep on their sides because they were so tightly packed. This camp housed all of the Nazi officers and was the original camp. Anne Frank came through this camp.

Birkenau

Birkenau's main function was to serve as a extermination camp for the Jews. At first the Nazis had experimented in Auschwitz 1 with the use of gas chambers as killing methods, and then once that was deemed a success they built Birkenau which had special gas chambers constructed to kill even more Jews. Almost 90% of any prisoners of any of the Auschwitz camps, died at Birkenau. It was also a place where they would determine if a prisoner was going to be killed or sent to Auschwitz 3 for forced labor. A important person of Birkenau is Rudolph Hoss who was the commander of the Auschwitz camp.